CUYAHOGA COUNTY, Ohio — Police in Olmsted Township used a piece of technology to locate a man who had gone missing on a routine walk through his neighborhood on Saturday. By using a drone, police were able to spot the man, who had fallen in a hard to access area and couldn’t get up.
On Saturday, 75-year-old Roger Lipstreu went for a stroll before dinner. However, what started as a walk around the block turned into a search mission when he entered an unpaved area among trees, a spot typically used by his community to dispose of branches and leaves.
As he was walking on the uneven terrain, Lipstreu fell, and couldn’t get back up.
“I couldn’t go any further, and I fell backwards,” he said. “I didn’t realize how long I’d been there.”
It turns out, Lipstreu had been gone for about two hours, prompting his wife to call 911. Alongside neighbors, police searched on foot around his neighborhood, but didn’t have any luck finding him.
According to Officer Ryan Hare, a police officer even walked by the area Lipstreu had fallen, but due to the thick brush and branches, the officer didn’t spot him behind a pile of tree trunks and other shrubs.
That’s when Officer Hare, a trained drone pilot with the police department, flew their drone, using its camera to scan the ground from a different vantage point, hoping to spot the missing man.
“There’s very many different things we can do with the drone. If somebody were to go missing, like in the case that we just had about a week ago, we can throw it in the air and assist in locating somebody who’s missing that maybe we couldn’t find on the ground,” Hare said. “If a suspect decides to flee from a scene, we can attempt to assist in locating a suspect. The fire department could use it, and we could assist in using it to see how far fires spread.”
Hare said due to the heat, medical conditions, and the amount of sunlight, it was important to locate Lipstreu sooner rather than later. Within an hour of having the drone in the air, Hare spotted him, radioing other officers in the area to communicate his exact location.
“When I actually found him in a real life situation, there was a lot of mixed emotions, excitement, happiness,” Hare said.
Officers reached Lipstreu, who they said was uninjured, though dehydrated.
“I would thank him,” Lipstreu said of the Officer Hare. Hare and Lipstreu met for the first time on Wednesday.
“Knowing that I potentially saved his life, it was great to see him, and put a smile on my face,” said Hare of meeting Lipstreu.